Change you can count on being a bit presumptuous?

WHILE campaigning in public for a speedy withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, Sen. Barack Obama has tried in private to persuade Iraqi leaders to delay an agreement on a draw-down of the American military presence.

According to Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, Obama made his demand for delay a key theme of his discussions with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad in July.

“He asked why we were not prepared to delay an agreement until after the US elections and the formation of a new administration in Washington,” Zebari said in an interview.

Obama insisted that Congress should be involved in negotiations on the status of US troops – and that it was in the interests of both sides not to have an agreement negotiated by the Bush administration in its “state of weakness and political confusion.”

[h/t Betsy's Page, via Memeorandum featured posts]

More on the Obama meltdown.  “Faster, please.”

The decision to stick with a mostly-nasty approach should finally end the myth that the Obama campaign is a flawless machine. It had an extraordinarily appealing candidate, a message of change to an unhappy nation and made brilliant tactical decisions that defeated the Clintons.

But that was last season. Since then, it has frittered away four months and, even before Palin rocked the race, Obama was coasting as the presumptive President. He secured his base in Europe, but neglected West Virginia, where Clinton beat him by 40 points. Poll-wise, he remains where he was when Clinton quit in June.

Now faced with an energized and disciplined opponent, Team Obama is doubling-down on an approach that failed to seal the deal despite a beatable McCain, a favorable environment and a fawning media.

Ed Morrissey on ACORN’s get out the voter fraud efforts in swing states and Obama’s financing of same.

More tutting of the tut in another NYT op-ed:

If he seriously thought this first-term governor — with less than two years in office — was qualified to be president, if necessary, at such a dangerous time, it raises profound questions about his judgment. If the choice was, as we suspect, a tactical move, then it was shockingly irresponsible.

Wherefore dost thou me shit?

This better be good chicken:

Tuesday, Obama is scheduled to be in Beverly Hills, a Zip code that is home to plenty of Democratic money but in a state whose electoral votes he already has in the bag. Money raised will go to the Democratic National Committee and his own campaign.

At 5 p.m., he’ll headline a $28,500-per-head affair followed by a 7 p.m. $2,500 reception that has Barbra Streisand as an added draw. He’ll also attend an Asian-Americans reception “and photo line,” which carries a $28,500 price tag.